Again and again, he has painted children in brutal, violent settings. He has used Chris­tian iconography to depict Nazi officers, and juxtaposed rampaging soldiers with Images of childhood innocence. Visceral reactions come with the territory: one Installation in Cologne was physically attacked by neo Nazis. And yet, he says, he does not set out to shock. "Shock is a useless effect," he says. "Somebody in shock is completely useless. I want to make somebody think."
Instead, Helnwein's work speaks of a deep psychological need for meaning, even as it takes the form of violence and confrontation. Such an approach is rooted in the uneasy silences of growing up in post-war Austria and the shattered illusions of his early adult life, yet is still infused with an uneasy ideal­ism.
His art has brought him material rewards. Over the past 30 years, he has become an art superstar. His paintings and photographs command large prices. As he talks in his Co Tipperary castle, garbed in black clothes and dark glasses, Helnwein has the air of a vet­eran rock star and the lifestyle to match it.
The Sunday Times, Gerry McCarthy

It’s a foggy, cloud-streaked afternoon in Waterford County, Ireland. I’m meeting a man who has spent a large part of his life on this island that is famously steeped in tradition. He’s called this place home for some while. Ireland has a long history of treating its artists, literary figures and musicians well. This Austrian, with his distinctive appearance, is an ambivalent character. Helnwein’s main theme was, and mostly continues to be, violence and abuse. It wasn’t simply a case of deciding one day to explore this dark realm – no – as they say: the theme chose him. Many of Gottfried Helnwein’s works convey something disturbing. They often have something about them that won’t leave you alone. At the same time his pictures radiate a sacrosanct beauty that at times is breathtaking.

BETWEEN THE EYESGraphic art installation divides city opinionCoverstory by Conor Kane09. September 2008

LARGE-scale art installations dotted around Waterford’s city centre depicting war images are causing controversy because of their graphic content.

The exhibition, The Last Child, by Austrian-born and Waterford-based artist Gottfried Helnwein, is part of the Waterford Fringe Festival and includes a variety of work placed at strategic locations in the city, such as the Quays, the Clock Tower, City Hall and John Roberts Square. Among the material featured in the images are depictions of children with guns and a child lying down, covered with blood, as well as various shots of children with their eyes closed, as if dead.

“For me, the reaction so far in Waterford is very good because people are talking about the theme of war and exploitation. For a child to grow up now, it’s the toughest time ever because children are flooded with violence in the media and internet and computer games where the only thing to do is kill people and they are very graphic. Entertainment is very violent but as long as it’s entertainment, it’s fine, but as soon as you do it as art, people get very sensitive. In my art I’m only reflecting the world and I wanted to raise awareness and make people think.”

ON LOOKING AT SOME OF ANGELS SLEEPING AND BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEINby John Ennis08. September 2008

“All a poet can do today is warn”, World War 1 soldier poet, Wilfred Owen, wrote in a draft Preface for a book of anti-war poems he would never see published. He was killed on the eve of Armistice Day 1918. World War One, The Great War, The War to End All Wars . . . within twenty summers, Europe was engulfed again in the even greater catastrophies of the fascist era. The work of Gottfried Helnwein has its genesis in these years. They obsess him as a creative artist. As a kind of guardian angel, he grapples with them on our behalf. That such a nightmare would never visit us again. Or our children. Or our children’s children. Or “. . .all those still to come”.

ANTI WAR ART BY WORLD RENOWNED AUSTRIAN ARTISTInternationally-renowned artist, Gottfried Helnwein, launched the Waterford Fringe Festival at his castleby Kieran Walsh04. September 2008

Waterford Fringe Festival runs from 14 - 28 September in locations around Waterford city, and will feature large scale installations (some as large as 120ft x 80ft) of Helnwein’s work on buildings in the city. We caught a first glimpse of the display of wall art, at the launch in Gortroe Castle, Kilsheelan, near Carrick on Suir and were most impressed.

This will be controversial as the theme is children and war and how they are becoming victims of war.

"For Helnwein, the child is the symbol of innocence, but also of innocence betrayed. In today’s world, the malevolent forces of war, poverty, and sexual exploitation and the numbing, predatory influence of modern media assault the virtue of children. Robert Flynn Johnson, the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, has assembled a thought-provoking selection of Helnwein’s works and provided an insightful essay on his art in this exhibition catalogue.

Helnwein’s work concerning the child includes paintings, drawings, and photographs, and it ranges from subtle inscrutability to scenes of stark brutality.

Of course, brutal scenes—witness The Massacre of the Innocents—have been important and regularly visited motifs in the history of art. What makes Helnwein’s art significant is its ability to make us reflect emotionally and intellectually on the very expressive subjects he chooses."

Famed Austrian-born artist Gottfried Helnwein invites us into his magnificent home, Castle Gurteen Le Poer, in Co Tipperary, which dates back to the 12th century and has its own live-in-ghost the mysterious White Lady. Gottfried was the resident artist at this year's Waterford Fringe Festival, for which he organised an outdoor installation with billboard-sized pictures in various places around the city. As ever, he was reaching out and confronting people with his provocative, controversial work. The exhibition “The Last Child” featured powerful portraits of children in different scenarios - war and innocence. The largest piece being 40 metres high. "It's the duty of an artist to force people to look at what is going on," he says.

Controversial artist Gottfried Hellwein, the Austrian artist who has put up a special anti war art exhibition around buildings in Waterford recently spoke of his reasons for putting up art at the launch of his exhibition at Greyfriars Waterford last weekend.

Deputy Mayor of Waterford Cllr. Pat Hayes accepted that some people might find the art upsetting especially the one of the blood of a child and the white blue eyed children with guns.

However, he defended the rights of artists to provoke a reaction and get people to think. Sometimes provocative art can be effective and in this respect war is often seen as far away, but if the children had Asian and or African faces with guns would there have been as strong a reaction.